Meaningful Returns

There is a term in social psychology which describes the subconscious phenomenon of humans justifying systemic negative or immoral actions by referencing isolated positive or moral actions that too place prior. This term is “moral licensing,” or “moral self-licensing,” and the reality it describes is really pretty disturbing. (You can find moral licensing wherever one people group subjects another–Germans and their treatment of Jews, White Americans and their treatment of Black and Native Americans, etc. etc.).

You sometimes find less obvious forms of moral licensing in the realm of personal finance. Probably the most common example of this is the way we congratulate ourselves over spending $50 less a month at Starbucks while ignoring the hundreds (or even thousands!) of dollars of overspending on big items like cars and homes and vacations.

But what about with our charitable giving? It would be interesting if we all stepped back and thought about how our actions follow an act of giving. I don’t know what we would find, but it’s certainly within the realm of possibility that we could subconsciously use a big one time gift to justify a future lack of generosity. Or we might subconsciously find ourselves judging the beneficiaries of our giving.

I don’t have an answer for how to avoid this, other than to be aware that it could be happening, and to be very intentional about your charitable giving such that you are staying vested in the mission of the organizations to which you are donating.